Chick Clique?
Posted: 11/26/06I found a link to an academic paper on my desk earlier this week! That deserves an exclamation point because our magazine isn’t really famous for its academic content… However, this paper does look quite interesting. It’s about the Chick Clique, a tool described by researchers Tammy Toscos, Anne Faber, Shunying An and Mona Gandhi as:
“A preventative health cell phone application that helps motivate teenage girls to exercise by taking advantage of their social desire to stay connected with their peers.”
Their study isn’t as extensive as I would have liked it, but they do have some interesting conclusions, and they do seem to acknowledge the importance of peers when it comes to teenage girls. Their sample isn’t too well-described, and the research lacks some documentation, but I’m sure that’s because of their informatics training (and lack of general research training?).
Congratulations to the young writers for their innovative research design. Their paper is available for free on the Indiana Univesity server. More info is available on their webpage. Enjoy!